Portugal UBF Update
People thought Spain was the end of the known world. But the actual end of the known world (Europe) was Portugal, the farthest point west of the European continent.
The campus pioneering work of UBF in Portugal began in 1989 when M. Mateus Singh of India came to Lisbon University with a scholarship from the Portuguese government. When his scholarship was finished, he had severe financial problems with no money even to buy food; yet he kept the lamp of God through constant Sunday worship services fixing his eyes on Jesus, the pioner and perfecter of faith (Heb 12:2). He began his self-supporting missionary life from the bottom of S company and later he was promoted to be a director and now a manager of his department. While he was struggling to stand alone for around 10 years, many coworkers prayed for him and God established a beautiful missionary house church with M. Rebeca of Younhee UBF in 1998. She came to Portugal in 1999. God gave them two daughters , Debora (12) and Lydia (9). In 2001 M. John and Grace Huh of Younhee UBF joined with Eunhae (15) and Jihae (13). He worked at the bottom of the society then in Kotra and now in L company. By God’s grace they overcame all kinds of troubles and grew as mature spiritual coworkers. They are now making a beautiful environment for the kingdom of God and many students are enjoying the word of God, coming and going and growing as disciples of Jesus.
God allowed Neusa to M. Grace in 2008. She accepted John chapter 4 and never missed Sunday Worship service in spite of so many difficult situations. She was born in St. Tome (a former Portuguese colony) and came to Lisbon when she was 12 years old. When she gave her heart to the Word of God, God blessed her to attend the European Summer Conference, Purdue International conference and used her as a testimony speaker in many places. She dedicated herself to translate Mother Barry’s Daily Bread during the last 3 years finishing almost ¾ of the whole Bible. By God’s grace, she finished her Master degree in biology and now a Ph.D in Pharmacy. She is the source of blessing and comfort for our missionaries through her key verse testimonies at the end of the year. Now she feeds God’s flock, S and C. She prays to have 5 one to one Bible studies. She prays to be a prominient scientist and pharmacist and Ph.D professor shepherdess. She serves as a CBF and MBF Bible teacher and delivers SWS messages for our four children every Sunday morning. Now they have 7 regular sunday worship service attendees. M. Mateus works almost 11 hours daily for 5 days and serves Saturday night group Bible study and delivers Sunday messages. Brother N and Sister M have studied the Word of God the last 2-3 years and N is presiding quite often. The coworkers have early morning prayer meetings twice a week and Daily bread meeting once a week with students. On Saturday they have missionaries’ testimony sharing meeting. While M. Mateus prepares Sunday message, the other 3 missionaries pray for him on Sunday morning. They are studying Genesis this year.
Their prayer topics are:
1. To Pioneer 5 Portuguese speaking countries (Angola, Mozambic, Cabo Verde, Guine Visão, St. Tome).
2. For M. Joshua Kang’s family as well as M. Paulo’s family in Spain to pioneer Madrid University.
3. To raise 3 new disciples in 2012, 8 regular Sunday Worship attendants and 21 one to one Bible studies.
4. Establish 12 house churches in Portugal by 2012 including Neusa’s house church
Reported by Msn. Joseph Ahn